When parents text

The parents of college students can't be blamed for playing catch up when it comes to technology, but it doesn’t mean their trial and errors aren’t funny.

Texting is often the most convenient form of communication between busy students and their parents.

Although it's convenient, it may not be the most effective.

“My mom used to use the period instead of the space because she couldn’t find it,” said Warren junior Lindsey Peters.

Fowlerville junior Emily Hudson said her mom did not understand the medium's emphasis on brevity.

“When my mom first started texting she would end up sending a few messages in a row because she’d write it like a letter,” Hudson said. “She would start every message with ‘Dear Emily’ and then end it with ‘Love, Mom.’”

Since being introduced to abbreviations, Hudson said her mom’s texts are now hard to read.

“I told her she can use different abbreviations so she doesn’t have to type everything out, but now she hardly uses full words, because she tries to do it for everything,” Hudson said.

Receiving photos of her dog along with animated captions is often a highlight of sophomore Ashley Foster’s day.

“My mom will send me pictures of my dog and say things like ‘Ava can’t wait for you to come home!’ or ‘Ava’s being a bad doggy today, look how cute she is,’” the Grand Haven native said.

Thanks to whenparentstext.com, a collection of the funny things parents do when they get their hands on a phone can be seen on the blog. Their motto “small keyboard, old hands” celebrates the sometimes hilarious relationship between parents and technology.

Although some parents abuse the right to text, Journalism Faculty Betsy Rau said as a mother, she finds it funny that she recommends iPhone apps to her adult children.

“If I find easier ways to upload pictures to Facebook or find cool apps, I will tell my kids about it and there have been times my son goes ‘I can’t believe my own mother is telling me something,’” Rau said.

Even though she is a tech-savvy user, Rau said she still sometimes falls to being autocorrected by her phone.

“I texted my son the other day and said ‘I have some stiff in my trunk,’” she said. “And he goes, ‘Mom when did you resort to murder?’ And I was like ‘Stuff! Stuff!’”